Plan Approved for Temporary Skating Park

Teenage in-line skaters lobbying for a public place to skate in Santa Monica are celebrating city plans to build a temporary skating park.

Sparked by the city’s removal in June of an 18-foot-long staircase handrail that some youths used for skate tricks at Douglas Park, the teenagers’ campaign for a permanent skating park got a boost with the city’s announcement last week that it plans to build a temporary one. City officials said they hope to set up the park so it can be in use by the time schools break for the winter holiday.

The skaters are upset because they are chased off both private property and city parks. It is illegal to skateboard in the city’s parks, and authorities have been ordering in-line skaters and skateboarders out of those facilities.

The skaters’ campaign has included a demonstrating outside City Hall, talking to the news media and speaking before the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission. In response, commissioners formed an informal panel to explore the idea.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction, but they haven’t promised us anything,” said Steve Jackson, 13, one of a handful of skaters who has met with committee members on the issue.

City officials said there are no plans for a permanent skating park, but the city’s master parks and recreation plan, scheduled for completion in February 1997, will identify the need for space for skaters.

Even before the Douglas Park controversy, a 1995 survey of high school students showed that teenagers wanted a place to skate, said Julie Rusk, the city’s human services manager.

“There clearly is not an accessible local place to go for skating in Santa Monica, and on the Westside for that matter,” Rusk said.

Interest in a permanent city skating park will be measured, in part, by the number of youths who sign up for a city-sponsored field trip for students to a private skating park Nov. 1, Rusk said. The city added the skating park destination to appease the in-line skaters.

Plans for the temporary park are still sketchy. City officials are still researching what type of equipment to provide, where to locate it, who should supervise the facility and whether to charge admission.

Heidi Lemmon, a Santa Monica mother who is organizing the drive for a skating park, said the city’s agreement to build a temporary facility was a surprising but welcome development. Lemmon is working with the owner of a private skating park in Irwindale on a proposal for a park on Santa Monica city property.

“I thought we were still going to be duking it out whether we could have a skate park or not,” Lemmon said. “I think they seem to agree it’s a good thing.”

Although skating--including skateboarding, in-line skating and roller-hockey--is the nation’s fastest growing sport, few city or private skating parks exist. The sport is so popular that it is featured regularly on the ESPN sports cable TV network.

“You can’t give the kids swings and slides and baseballs and then when they turn 12 and want to skate tell them that they’ve become unacceptable,” Lemmon said.